The UNESCO Cultural Office for Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay:

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1 CULTURE AND DEVELOPMENT N 7 YEAR 2012 The UNESCO Cultural Office for Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay: thinking and implementing from a culture for development perspective Frédéric Vacheron Cultural Program Specialist from the UNESCO Regional Office of Sciences in Latin America and the Caribbean, Montevideo. The Cultural Sector of the UNESCO Office in Montevideo proposes the implementation and coordination of projects and programs based on a cultural concept, understood as part of a comprehensive development favoring and strengthening social, economic and political spheres and taking into account past and present expressions and manifestations with the purpose of creating a sound and sustainable context for progress. Dancing show in Villa Ocampo gardens. (Argentina) UNESCO In this regard, culture for development represents the spinal cord of the Cultural Sector work, and is understood as a resource that, on the one hand, should be safeguarded and protected to prevent its deterioration or disappearance as a result of its corporatization or folklorization and, on the other hand, as a resource that can be used as a development factor, provided that it is considered from a sustainable perspective. Following we will see four different examples on how culture can influence on sustainable development through the implementation of projects with different strategies and courses of action.

2 38 CULTURE AND DEVELOPMENT N 7 YEAR 2012 Valuation of intangible cultural heritage through cultural industries: UNESCO Award for Excellence granted to Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay Within cultural industries, craftsmanship is one of the most booming and sustainable sectors since it promotes a comprehensive development. In this regard, craftsmanship has a dual capacity; on the one hand, it promotes job generation and economic growth and, in the other hand, it enhances the values of culture as an invaluable good, thus providing a new application of traditional knowledge which should be repositioned in the light of the current cultural globalization and homogenization process. The significance of crafts is enshrined in the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003), in which Article 2.2 states that traditional handicraft is an expression of this heritage. Likewise, the Convention for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005) emphasizes the specific protection of crafts as a cultural product, stressing that special attention should be paid to the specific nature of cultural goods and services since culture is not just another commodity and, therefore, demands an adequate protection. Within the framework of the UNESCO International Program of Crafts and Design, the UN- ESCO Award for Excellence granted to Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay 1, intends to set rigorous excellence standards for crafts, promote innovation, provide training services and support both to countries and organizations or to artisans and provide new opportunities to ensure the sustainability of crafts enterprises. For this purpose, the Award for Excellence is granted in accordance with four criteria, namely, excellence, authenticity, innovation and marketing and bearing in mind two indispensable requirements: respect for the environment and socially-responsible manufacturing conditions. In May 2008, and under these premises, UN- ESCO granted the first Award for Excellence for Craft Products in the Southern Cone in Córdoba, Argentine. This award was granted in coordination with relevant public agencies from Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, as well as the World Council of Crafts. During this first edition in the subregion, the National Selection Committees submitted eighty seven crafts out of which eighteen were acknowledged by an International Jury made up by five UNESCO specialists. Of the acknowledged crafts, six were from Argentine, eight from Chile, two from Paraguay and two from Uruguay. In November 2009, as a result of the success achieved by the subregion at the first edition, an internal workshop was held in Santiago de Chile with the purpose of coordinating the next Award for Excellence edition. This workshop gathered the various National Committees, made a balance of the previous 2008 edition and held the Artisans and Designers (A + D) workshop which resulted in the A + D Workshop Meeting in Santiago de Chile 2 (2009) publication, as a followup of the Meeting of Designers and Artisans A Practical Guide 3 (2005) publication. Finally, and before the final selection process of crafts in October 2010, Santiago de Chile was also the venue for the workshop that served as an introduction to the new Award for Excellence edition with the aim of generating an interaction between the international jury and the national committees, grasping the local context of each represented country by taking into consideration their social and cultural characteristics and their commercial strategies. In 2010, during the second edition, National Committees selected a total of seventy four pieces. The international jury granted the Award for Excellence to twenty-four crafts. Six were from Argentine, eight from Chile, four from Paraguay and six from Uruguay. As in the previous edition, pieces selected by the UNESCO Award for Excellence received a certificate that could be useful for their promotion. Besides, training courses in handicraft design and marketing are foreseen for awarded artisans. Such was the case of the abovementioned A + D workshop whose objective was to elucidate the application field, and processes and modalities for an adequate intervention of design in craftsmanship. Likewise, artisans were encouraged to participate in different international fairs such as the Bangkok Gift Fair, the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market, the Paris Salon Maison & Objet, the New Delhi Handicrafts Gift Fair, or the Central Asian Crafts Fair, and be part of the promotion platforms that UNESCO and its partners created and

3 Frédéric Vacheron THE UNESCO CULTURAL OFFICE FOR ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY AND URUGUAY 39 disseminated to promote the program, namely, multilingual booklets, catalogues, calendars, web sites or intellectual property. Strengthening cultural industries in Uruguay: Viví Cultura The Project Strengthening cultural industries and improving accessibility to cultural goods and services in Uruguay, known as Viví Cultura ( ), is a joint program between the Uruguayan State represented by the Ministry of Education and Culture; the Ministry of Industries, Energy and Mining; the Planning and Budget Office- and the United Nations system, financed by Spain through the Millennium Development Goals Fund (MDGs-Fund). The United Nations agencies participating in the project are: the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO); the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); UN Women; the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), also acting as leading agency; the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA); and the United Nations Children s Fund (UNICEF). The main objective of Viví Cultura is to help achieving three of the MDGs: the first one, to reduce poverty and hunger; the third one, to promote gender equality and women s autonomy; and the eighth one, to encourage the promotion of a world development association. From a sustainable development perspective, its main objectives include the promotion of cultural expressions and development of cultural industries based on local values and identities with the purpose of helping improve the economic insertion of the country, expand its domestic market and generate quality jobs. Likewise, the aim is to improve access of citizens to cultural goods and services and increase creative and management capacities of vulnerable groups, thus placing culture as a factor of both development and social cohesion. In this way, it intends to strengthen cultural institutions and capacity-building. In 2007, the Uruguayan State ratified the 2007 Convention for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, adopted by the UN- ESCO General Conference in Within this framework, actions have been implemented in order to strengthen musical, editorial and handicraft sectors. On the other hand, a number of centers equipped with audiorecording halls and a video, production and edition studio, as well as the so-called cultural factories (training and development centers for cultural projects aimed at youngsters and women), in vulnerable zones of the country so as to involve the population with limited resources and with the purpose of promoting access and production of cultural goods in broad and diverse sectors. Likewise, a Cultural Information System 4 has been established to systematize diagnostic information and propose cultural initiatives. This System will promote the creation of a network of professionals and academicians from the SOUTH Center 5 sector, as a mechanism for exchange, promotion and research among the different cultural stakeholders in the country and in the region. After a three-year implementation, and through its monitoring, communication and impact strategies, Viví Cultura Viví Cultura Project to strengthen cultural industries in Uruguay UNESCO

4 40 CULTURE AND DEVELOPMENT N 7 YEAR 2012 Excellence Acknowledgement. Horsehair Crafts from the Maestra Madre de Rari Association UNESCO has been able to verify how and to what extent it has become an innovating program both in its content, establishing a clear relationship between culture and development, and in its working methodology, establishing through coordination between society, local and national authorities, and international cooperation. Promoting a cultural approach to HIV/AIDS in Uruguay: Inventiva project The Inventiva Project is an initiative launched by the Cultural Sector of the UNESCO Office in Montevideo, in cooperation with UNAIDS in Uruguay and the Ministry of Education and Culture in Uruguay, funded by the UNESCO / UNAIDS Culture and HIV and AIDS program in Santiago de Chile, and implemented in coordination with the UNESCO Center in Montevideo. Inventiva has been developed on the basis of two main and complementing objectives: to sensitize the civil society on the importance of HIV prevention through arts and creativity and to promote, from an artistic approach, the rights of those living with the disease, combating discrimination against affected people in general and the most vulnerable population in particular; and to foster a cultural approach to HIV/AIDS among governmental and non-governmental organizations so as to highlight the importance of devoting resources to launch projects with this kind of approach. Consequently, in 2010, Inventiva developed two main products: a contest to award good practice acknowledgements to cultural-based HIV/AIDS projects and an outdoors traveling film festival held in six departments of the country, with films on HIV/AIDs. Following the closing of the project first phase, and using an impact measuring strategy, the suitability and need of a cultural approach became evident if the perception of the disease is to be modified, as well as the need to promote the rights of affected people and their relatives. A place for culture: Villa Ocampo Villa Ocampo is a stately home built in 1891 as a summer resort for the Ocampo family in San Isidro. Besides its tangible heritage, the significance of this site lies in its history: Victoria Ocampo, the eldest daughter of the family, lived there until She turned the house into a gathering place for the most outstanding intellectuals and artists of the 20th century who visited her or arrived in the country as her guests. Visitors included Rabindranath Tagore, André Malraux, Igor Stravinsky, Le Corbusier, Albert Camus, Gabriela Mistral, Graham Greene, Jorge Luis Borges and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the famous author of The Little Prince. Some of these visitors contributed to the transformation of the Argentinean culture from its diverse disciplines. Besides, Victoria also founded and led Sur, the most important publication of the Latin American literature in the 20th century, thus becoming a symbol of cultural diversity, tolerance and opening to arts. Thus, Villa Ocampo abounds in essential meanings for culture and even for the Argentinean identity. In 1973, Victoria, at the suggestion of her friend André Malraux, decided to donate her house to UNESCO to contribute, with a living and creative spirit, to the promotion, study, experimentation and development of activities embodying culture, literature, arts and social communication. The eclectic architecture of the house depicts different European influences. The furniture and works of art include pieces from mid 19th century (paintings by Prilidiano Pueyrredón, the great artist of the Rio de la Plata academism) to the end of the 20th century, emphasizing the modernism between wars: Bauhaus lamps, tapestries by Picasso and Léger dating from the 1920s, and photographs by Man Ray, among others. In accordance with the donor s will and UNESCO s objectives, the site is not a museum, but a modern center for cultural and intellectual production. Thus, Villa Ocampo is currently promoting a model center for collaboration between the public and private sectors in compliance with a set of standards aimed at respecting culture and

5 Frédéric Vacheron THE UNESCO CULTURAL OFFICE FOR ARGENTINA, PARAGUAY AND URUGUAY 41 Excellence Acknowledgement. Earthenware and silver set by Marcelo Pallas and Liliana Testa. UNESCO heritage. The center is run by a fixed committed and motivated staff; it is funded through different sources of income moved by different interests; it is an open and non-excluding space; and it combines eclectic elements from museums, libraries, performance halls or clubs. In general, Villa Ocampo is a model balance between respect for a fragile heritage and the need to link content and modern culture, improving access to a greater number of people. In fact, every year, this UN- ESCO center receives approximately 30,000 visitors, students and tourists who participate in the many offers provided. Information on its activities is disseminated through a web page, a site in Facebook with almost 4,000 followers, a blog, mailing with over 5,000 contacts and articles published in local and foreign newspapers. In short, Villa Ocampo is both a cultural center and a living museum devoted to intercultural dialogue and diversity including guided visits, concerts, film projections, seminars and workshops, having culture as a banner of its most diverse expressions, and promoting a number of interdisciplinary programmatic activities associated with UNESCO s mission, especially that of culture for development, in fields such as the World Heritage and the Intangible Cultural Heritage, training on culture management, training of journalists, cultural tourism and cultural industries. These examples prove how through the correct implementation of projects and programs, culture can be both a central and cross-sectional element in development strategies, by training and sensitizing stakeholders, as in the Awards for Excellence; institutional strengthening and promotion of cultural industries as a development driving force and social integration factor, like Viví Cultura; approaching arts and creativity as promoters of sensitization and cultural change of sensitive and significant issues like HIV/AID through the Inventiva project; or fostering spaces for cultural access and democratization, as shown in the Villa Ocampo example. Notes 1 Ahttp:// 2 Available in: 3 Available in :